The Power of the Puffs
by Caz251
Summary: Summary: What Hufflepuff House really are, and who they are beholden to, whatever others may think, Hufflepuffs are not weak. General spoilers for the books. Written for sabethea who won my help haiti auction. Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


**Title: **The Power of the Puffs

**Author: **caz251

**Fandom: **Harry Potter

**Characters: **Hufflepuff House, mentions of the founders of Hogwarts

**Rating: **G

**Words: **1,196

**Summary: **What Hufflepuff House really are, and who they are beholden to, whatever others may think, Hufflepuffs are not weak.

**Spoilers: **General spoilers

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything associated with it.

**AN:** Something a little bit different from me, written for sabethea who won the auction for help_haiti. Let me know what you think, criticism be it constructive or not is always welcome.

When people thought of Hufflepuff, everyone who had never been a Hufflepuff immediately labelled them as a bunch of squibs or the leftovers, those who the sorting hat had decreed that they weren't smart, brave or cunning. Many seemed to forget that loyalty and being hardworking were worthwhile traits, just because they weren't the most prominent house in the school. It was hard for a Hufflepuff to gain recognition within Hogwarts as a whole, what with the feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin dominating the social world within the school and the Ravenclaws the academic one. No-one in Hogwarts ever looked at a Hufflepuff with great grades in the same way they did a Ravenclaw, no a Puffs academic achievement only ever came out at a job interview.

Due to the rest of Hogwarts' ignorance the Hufflepuffs formed together as more than a house. They had become what McGonagall preached to the first years each year, a family. Hufflepuffs looked out for each other, both inside and outside Hogwarts, regardless of whether or not they liked each other, after all in a family siblings fight. Within the school Hufflepuff House was the only one that wouldn't turn on one of its members at the drop of a hat. Slytherin would give the appearance of being united outside of their house but inside it, it was every snake for itself. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were just as bad, neither knew the true meaning of loyalty for all their bravery and knowledge.

To be a Hufflepuff meant more than being loyal and hardworking or as others saw them, weak. Hufflepuffs were probably the strongest house in the school because they didn't have the internal struggles like the other houses had Slytherins for power, Gryffindors for glory and Ravenclaws for knowledge. The only struggle that the Hufflepuffs faced was the one in the wider school, how they were perceived by the school and society as a whole, and overcoming the label thrust upon them, weak. The Slytherins in particular liked to make a spectacle of the puffs, but they only ever attempted to pick on the first years, and even then only for the first few weeks of the year. Over the years many people had wondered about that, why the Slytherins only harassed the Hufflepuffs for a few weeks before moving on to target the Gryffindors once again. The reality of the matter was that as soon as a puff was picked on, the rest of the house gathered around and taught the first years how to defend themselves, using both magical and muggle means.

It was something that had been done in Hufflepuff house for years, the whole house coming together to teach the younger members all they needed to know. Not just those things they might need to defend themselves, but anything and everything they would need to know to get on in the world. Once such thing was history, it did not do to forget the past only to recreate it in the future, Hufflepuff house were taught the true history of magic and the real story of the founders of Hogwarts. Many believed that Slytherin was evil, but that was not the case, Salazar Slytherin, according to Helga Hufflepuff anyway, was one of the gentlest men she had ever met. Salazar was a true aristocrat, a proper gentleman to everyone even the muggleborn, a man with ambition that knew no bounds.

Godric Gryffindor had been a brash the fiery tempered man, who had never really thought before he spoke. The arguments between Gryffindor and Slytherin had been nothing to do with blood purity, but were of a more personal nature, the details of which Lady Hufflepuff had never passed down through the years. Rowena Ravenclaw was the founder who had not had much care for the muggleborn, believing them to be an anomaly that may endanger all that she had sought for. Lady Ravenclaw had been looking for knowledge, but not for knowledge's sake as was told through history, she was searching for knowledge as a means of gaining power. The muggleborn were a threat to her power base, as a pureblood which these children of muggles with magic scared her, it was her belief that they were magic thieves.

It had been Lady Ravenclaw who had written the records from that time, skewed as they were in her favour, something that only Helga had known. Lady Hufflepuff, while a healer and teacher was also a seer. She had seen what the future would bring and as such she took methods to ensure that the knowledge of the past would survive to be unveiled at the right time. She couldn't change things as she had come to know due to experience that tampering with the line of the future that fate had set out was a dangerous game that often resulted in severe consequences.

Lady Hufflepuff had made sure that her house would survive with the truth, and had when the others were busy created a way for that to happen. The enchantments that she had cast upon the Hufflepuff territory were intricate in their casting and very gruelling to cast, but she had managed it with a little help from Hogwarts herself. The Hufflepuff common room was one that was now shrouded in secrecy, spells of every kind ensured that nothing spoken there could be revealed until the correct time. She also made it mandatory for each new Hufflepuff to be brought properly into the fold, as soon as they arrived at the common room for the first time they were immediately made to swear a secrecy oath and one to uphold the honour of Hufflepuff. They were then taken to The Chamber, the place that Helga and the castle had come up with, a large meeting council chamber, where they were told the truth and explained to about the rules and the format of Hufflepuff.

Everything that Lady Hufflepuff had done was for the future, for the continuation of Hogwarts and Hufflepuff, and they were only ever spoken about in the presence of other Hufflepuffs. Helga's main contribution to the future was staying around when she died she had taken the form of a ghost, relegating herself to the council chamber in order to make sure that no-one but the Hufflepuffs knew that her presence was still in the castle. With her guidance there was at least one Hufflepuff in every corner of the British Wizarding world, each ready to rise up and change the world.

They knew that when the time came that the knowledge they held would shake the very foundations of the British Wizarding world, Hogwarts in particular would shake with the knowledge, the occupants unable to believe it and the castle happy that things were being set straight. Until that time however, the Hufflepuffs would carry on in the manner that they had, keeping their heads down, working hard for what they wanted in life and showing great loyalty, even if no-one but them knew who that loyalty was to. After all, no Hufflepuff would ever turn on the Lady Hufflepuff, they were a family, and she was their mother.


End file.
